Photo by Skip Lawrence Heather Whittington is a yoga instructor at the Center for Mind-Body Therapies on North Bentz Street. Here she is assisting client Karen Finneyfrock with relaxation techniques.

"I saw these major, intense, wonderful changes over time," she said.

She's now a certified yoga therapist, helping about 10 clients a week at the Center for Mind-Body Therapies manage their own stress, clarify goals and focus on what they really want in life.

For Dorcas Quynn McWilliams, yoga seemed a natural progression from her lifelong practice of martial arts, but it wasn't love at first try. Now the owner of Sol Yoga on West Patrick Street, she didn't know what to make of her first yoga class .

"The word I used to describe it was 'hokey,'" she said. "I was into a lot of physical fitness, and it just felt strange."

She tried it again 10 years later, and said then she knew she'd never stop.

"I went home and wrote it down with the rest of my important events," she said. "When you do it, it's profound the clarity that comes up. It's not even religious or spiritual, it's just pure calmness."

Whatever draws people to the millennia-old practice, it's the clarity and calm involved in both meditation and body work that keeps them coming back.

Despite its popularity, some people still see yoga as a practice for only the extremely flexible, as a purely religious practice, or as a passing trend. All these images are skewed, McWilliams said.

"Some people are afraid of it," she said. "Yoga's not a new thing, it's over 2,000 years old. It can seem intimidating, because you see all beautiful people doing perfect poses."

Yoga encompasses more than 840,000 poses, McWilliams said, so everyone from pregnant women and new mothers, to children and teens, to those dealing with chronic pain or other illnesses can participate.

"It's for people who aren't flexible," McWilliams said. "It's non-competitive, and you can start wherever you are."

Some forms of yoga incorporate more mind work than body work. Take, for instance, Whittington's Rising Phoenix yoga.

"Body work is so helpful, but not everyone is ready for that," Whittington said. "You just need to learn how to take time for yourself."

This self-centered time is what drew Whittington to yoga in the first place. Her teaching style focuses on guided meditation, gentle stretches and deep breathing to help her clients focus.

She emphasizes metta meditation, which encourages students to use lovingkindness toward themselves and others. Whittington even hosts what she calls a Gentle Heart Forgiveness Retreat, a day-long session focusing on "compassion for the self, and the art of lovingkindness for all beings."

Appreciating oneself and others goes a long way in improving quality of life, she said.

"Once you make time for yourself, you're happier, and ultimately everyone just wants to feel good and be happy," she said. "People come here because they want to be happy, and that transcends to other relationships."

But big changes aren't necessary. While her own yoga experience led her to change jobs, Whittington said that doesn't happen for everyone.

"Most improve the situation they're in. You work with what you have," she said. "Your body holds unresolved emotional experiences. If you don't feel good in your body, (if) it feels stressed and tense, odds are that is how you feel in your life. If you can relax your body, your mind becomes more relaxed, and you experience less stress in your life."

Whittington said such relaxation could be the first step in achieving one's life goals. Yoga and quiet meditation can help people achieve clarity about their "deepest desire," or exactly what they want to achieve, she said. This clarity then helps clients formulate a plan to keep them on track.

How a person practices yoga can also reflect how they feel in other areas of life, McWilliams said. For example, many Type A personalities often try to stick with vigorous yoga.

"You learn to evaluate your life. For people who always do vigorous yoga, it's 'do you need more energy or do you need to relax?' You realize what you need in your life," she said.

Linda Pruce, who takes classes at Sol Yoga and also works at the studio, said she's noticed that her yoga practice mirrors her outside life.

"Sometimes I can do the balancing poses really easily, but if I'm having trouble, then I'm probably out of balance in my life," she said. "I've never found that in other types of exercise, I can just zone out in other types."

Pruce intended to use yoga to get back into shape after the birth of her second daughter. She bought at-home tapes and took classes at a nearby gym, but said her experience changed when she started taking classes at a New York City studio in 2000.

"In the beginning, it was all about power yoga and seeing a fitness aspect to it," she said. "Since then, I understand that all types of yoga are good for me. Only getting caught up in fitness isn't good -- sometimes I need the gentle class, and sometimes I need a more rigorous class."

The movements didn't come easy for Pruce, and she said she had to learn both to concentrate and to be patient with herself.

"You have to be very focused on the now, as opposed to in an aerobics class, where I can be doing aerobics and thinking about the grocery list. If I start thinking about the groceries while I'm doing yoga, it can get ugly."

Pruce's two daughters have also taken an interest in yoga, and Pruce said her 12-year-old, Paige, is already seeing the benefits.

"She's a high energy kid, so I see that she's much calmer and centered in the evenings after yoga," Pruce said. "The big thing I notice with her is that she comes out of class very calm, centered and focused."

Pruce also said Paige and others in her class are beginning to carry yoga principles over into real-life situations, using learned poses to calm them down if they can't sleep or if they're upset.

Whittington works mainly on an appointment-only schedule, working one-on-one with clients or couples. Sol Yoga has a drop-in-only schedule, making the classes accessible to busy people, McWilliams said.

"If it's difficult to get in here, it's hard to make it a priority, so it's the first thing to fall by the wayside," McWilliams said. "Even doing it one day a week brings an awareness that transcends the studio and the yoga mat. Just learning how to breathe slowly and deeply É it's such a simple principle, you can do it at a traffic light, or if you're stuck in a traffic jam."